Dangerous enthusiasm : William Blake and the culture of radicalism in the 1790s /
Jon Mee.
- Oxford : New York : Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1992.
- x, 251 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Gratis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-245) and index.
A Note on Texts -- Introduction: Blake the Bricoleur -- 1. 'Every Honest Man is a Prophet': Popular Enthusiasm and Radical Millenarianism -- 2. 'Northern Antiquities': Bards, Druids, and Ancient Liberties -- 3. 'Forms of Dark Delusion': Mythography and Politics -- 4. Blake, the Bible, and its Critics in the 1790s -- Conclusion.
Dangerous Enthusiasm considers Blake's prophetic books written during the 1790s in the light of the French Revolution controversy raging at the time; his works are shown to be less the expressions of isolated genius than the products of a complex response to the cultural politics of his contemporaries. William Blake's work presents a stern challenge to historical criticism. Jon Mee's new study meets the challenge by investigating contexts outside the domains of standard literary histories. He traces the distinctive rhetoric of the illuminated books to the French Revolution controversy of the 1790s and Blake's fusion of the diverse currents of radicalism abroad in that decade. The study is supported by a wealth of original research which will be of interest to historians and literary critics alike. Blake emerges from these pages as a 'bricoleur' who fused the language of London's popular dissenting culture with the more sceptical radicalism of the Enlightenment. Dangerous Enthusiasm presents a more comprehensively politicized picture of Blake than any previous study.
0198122268 : �30
92011156
Blake, William, 1757-1827 --Political and social views.
Politics and literature--History--Great Britain--18th century. Revolutionary literature, English--History and criticism. Radicalism--History--Great Britain--18th century. Enthusiasm in literature. Radicalism in literature. Prophecies in literature.
France--History--Foreign public opinion, British.--Revolution, 1789-1799 France--History--Influence.--Revolution, 1789-1799